Jayasudha

Jayasudha (Telugu:జయసుధ) is an actress-turned-MLA for the Congress in Secunderabad. She was a famous South Indian actress from the 1970s and 1980s, with most of her films being Telugu films.

Career

Jayasudha was born as Sujatha to a Telugu speaking family in Madras, Tamil Nadu on 17 December 1958. Her aunt is the famous actress and director Vijaya Nirmala. Jayasudha made her film debut when she was twelve years old as Jamuna's daughter in the Telugu film Panduntikaapuram (1972). Soon, she acquired the name "Jayasudha," since there was already another actress named Sujatha acting in films. Her next break came in two Tamil films directed by the celebrated director K. Balachander: Arangettram and Apoorva Raagangal. The latter became a big hit. Her fame quickly spread, where Telugu film producers were offering her good film roles. While her debut role as heroine in the Telugu film Lakshmana Rekha (1975) got her attention, it was really the title role in Jyothi (1976 film) (remake of the Hindi film Mili starring Jaya Bhaduri) that made her a huge star in Telugu films. She was now called a successor to the great Telugu actress Savitri and performed many strong roles and showed excellent range[1]. She is given the title "Sahaja Nati" which means "spontaneous/lively actress." Her roles varied from the cute looking teeny bopper who wore minis in "Nomu" (1974), to that of a tortured wife of a sadist husband in K. Balachander's film "Idi Katha Kaadu" (1979) to that of a comedienne who discovers that her husband wants to murder her for her wealth in "Money" (1993). She performed showy roles in Telugu remakes of Hindi films, such as Yugandhar (1979) (the fighter role that Zeenat Aman originated in Don (1978 film)), Illalu (1981) (Reena Roy's dark-shaded role from Apnapan (1977)), etc. In commercial cinema, she received a huge break when she starred in Adavi Ramudu (1977), which broke box office records.[2] She also showed innovativeness and lack of vanity in original Telugu films like Premabhishekam (1981) where she played a supporting role as a deglamorized prostitute, while Sridevi played the female lead.[3]

She acted in 225 Telugu films, and in one year, she had 24 film releases. She accomplished all this, despite her illiteracy in Telugu, by having people read lines to her and she would remember and deliver her lines.[1]

She became such a famous actress that she starred in a film Jayasudha (1982), named after her. Her fame also allowed producers to cast her sister Subhashini in supporting roles in some of the films that she starred in, such as Sivaranjani (1978), "Doctor Cine-actor" and Meghasandesam (1983). Subhashini's daughter Pooja is now a budding actress.

She joined recently in Congress Party and became as MLA.

[edit]Personal life

Jayasudha is a granddaughter of eminent scholar and literary historian, Nidudavolu Venkatarao.

Jayasudha married producer Nitin Kapoor, cousin to actor Jeetendra. They married in 1985 and have two children, Sons Nihar (born in 1986) and Shreayan (born in 1990). While she has friends in the industry, such as Raadhika and Revati, her closest friend is Jayaprada, with whom she had acted with in huge hits Adavi Ramudu (1977) and Meghasandesam (1982).[4][5] Jayasudha is a practicing Christian. She is now a MLA for Congress from the Secunderabad constituency. [6] She has also launched her official website to further her political career.[7]